heading toward the finish – sneak peek at more collaboration

detail of companion panel for "Graffiti Under Bridge"

Working like mad to pull everything together in time for my exhibit at SEED Gallery (opening THIS Friday – ACK! – Opening is 7-10pm during gallery hop – stop by!). Spent the last few days wrapped up finishing touches on my new art quilt. Hand-stiching 12 feet of binding around the edges hurt, but I’m pretty happy with the end result of this mammoth project (over 10.5 feet wide and almost 8 feet tall !!). Now I just hope I hope I can figure out a way to hang it.

I’ll post quilt photos later in the week, but today I wanted to share some shots of another collaboration for the show. I’m creating companion pieces for Dave’s photo “Graffiti Under Bridge”. These pieces are printed on reclaimed curtain sheer and will hang from the ceiling in front of a very large print of his photo. Meanwhile, he’s creating companion panels to hang with my art quilt on the other side of the gallery. Our goal is to create an environment something like – but not quite – an instillation piece that will underline the theme of the show (Timestretching: Dreamscapes and Visions).

"Graffiti Under Bridge" by Dave Urena

I wanted to pick up elements from Dave’s image that spoke to me and print them on the sheer fabric coupled with elements of my own creation. I love texture and organic lines as well as found “art”  – all of which you can find in Dave’s photo, so this part was easy. I picked up a detail of the graffiti in the image and printed it large vertically across all three fabric panels in a bright orange. (The fabric had already been randomly printed with images from my “In the Upstairs Bedroom of House Number Two” series in white before it was cut into three panels).

Collecting elements for the design: A screen of the plant pod shape and the detail from Dave's photo I used to create screens that printed in orange.

Once the orange graffiti details were printed and dried, I moved on to adding some organic details of my own. I want the viewer experience in the gallery of peering around the three panels to Dave’s photo to be an organic one, almost as if they were coming upon the bridge in the distance and peering around trees and branches to discover it, so I decided to incorporate stylized plant forms in the panel design. I was already using these pod-like shapes in another piece for the show, so it was a natural fit. I printed one pod shape on each panel at varying heights and added stems with a paint brush. Now I have a stylized “forest” as my addition to Dave’s image.

I can’t wait to see how this looks in the gallery. We are going out on a limb, here, with this concept of partially obscuring some of the work, but I do think it will cause viewers to stop and consider the work for a moment, even if the overall concept doesn’t come off perfectly. The idea of reframing, slowing down and refocusing awareness is a big part of what we talked about together while concepting, so in that, at least, I think we will succeed.

Detail of companion panels for "Graffiti Under Bridge"

three panels, in a row

Here you can get a sense of scale. These should hang almost floor to ceiling in the gallery.

• Art
• in progress
• printing
• screenprinting